She started transitioning in prison, but when she got out and went to change her name as part of her treatment, the judge denied her request.

“In view of your felony record, I want to avoid any confusion as to your identity in our computer data bases, both the Central Criminal Records Exchange and the Virginia Criminal Information Network,” read the letter signed by Judge Hupp. “If you actually undergo a sex change operation as contemplated under Virginia Code 32.1-269, you may file a new application.”

While Virginia’s laws around name changes do allow denials based on attempts to defraud your past, lawyers like Kate Fletcher, who have dealt with unnecessary name-change denials before, said things likes DUI’s shouldn’t factor into cases like Brill’s.

“Can you imagine if every woman who wanted to get married and change her name but had a DUI, wasn’t allowed to?” Fletcher said in an interview with GayRVA.

But all of that came to an end earlier this week when Brill went to the court house and was granted her new name.

“(My grandfather) sat right outside (the courthouse) two years ago and gave me his credit card to go in (to the courthouse) and change my name,” Brill said in an interview with WHSV. “And I didn’t know that the denial and the expectations on that denial were going to create so much turmoil in my life.”